Shipping & economic development, Vistula Lagoon, Poland/Russia

The Vistula Lagoon, Poland/Russia, and its surrounding requires a comprehensive management plan supporting sustainable economic development. The strengthening of harbours and tourism plays an important role, but requires new and/or deepened shipping channels in the lagoon. Several scenarios will describe possible options. Using a hydrodynamic model the effect of different scenarios on the lagoon will be analysed, with special focus on channel siltation as well as utilization and management of dredged and dumped material. Additional socio-economic studies will explore implementation and maintenance costs and analyse the resulting opportunities for tourism development. Further, the relevance for nature conservation policies and practices, especially of NATURA 2000 and its local management, will be taken into consideration. The work will built-up on previous projects ARTWEI, LAGOONS and ARCH and involve major stakeholders. It is planned to compare results with and to transfer the approach to the Szczecin Lagoon (CSS1), where channel deepening is an issue, as well.